Lil Wayne’s- Tha Carter III Review Sketch

Have you ever sat down and thought to yourself, “Hmm, what makes a good rap album?” Some rap critics may argue that it is the roaring bass induced beats that determine the success of a rap album, while other avid listeners may lean toward the lyrical content that the artist may use, and how he distinctively puts together lyrical metaphors and punch lines, with a unique flow and delivery to appeal to his listeners. While most hip hop fans listen to music and form their own opinions about how a great rap album should sound, all of these criteria’s play a major role in the overall success of a great rap album. A great rap album should have the sound, originality, lyrical content, metaphors and punch lines, distinctive flow and delivery, quality, swagger, great featured artist, top notch produces, and should also be reasonable on the pockets of consumers. Also, single songs from the album often times foreshadow on the success of an artist album depending on how well the song is received by fans.  When all of these features have been exposed to artist listeners at other pivotal points in their careers, a successful rap artist will have a successful highly anticipated album among fans and other dedicated hip hop music lovers.

New Orleans native rapper Dwayne Carter, better known by his stage name Lil Wayne knows what it is like to have a great rap album, with the release of his 6^th studio album, Tha Carter III. “After serving an apprenticeship with New Orleans’ Hot Boys and releasing a handful of so-so solo albums, Lil Wayne dubbed himself the greatest rapper alive on his 2005 album Tha Carter II. He then proceeded to back up that claim with a remarkable creative hot streak, producing a career’s worth of great mix tapes and guest spots over the next few years.”(Serpick) In 2008, Lil Wayne would prove to critics and fans worldwide, why he is in fact the best rapper alive, with the release of his 6^th studio album, Tha Carter III. “Tha Carter III is useful as an exclamation point. It establishes beyond a doubt that the zeitgeist in 2008 belongs to one artist: a dreadlocked dadaist poet from New Orleans with a bad weed habit and a voice like a bullfrog.”(Rosen) Releasing just four billboard chart topping singles from the upcoming album, including international hit Lollipop, A Milli, Got Money, and Mrs. Officer, Tha Carter III became the most anticipated album in America. In the first week the much-anticipated album dropped, The Carter III went on to sell 1Million copies and went platinum. Tha Carter III outperformed and outnumbered the preceding albums in the franchise drastically during its first week.  “Tha Carter III fared much better than its predecessor, as the Tha Carter II only sold 238,000 units in its opening week in 2005.”(Kreps)

            Tha Carter III possesses all of the features for a perfect rap album. It had more than one successful singles, top notch production, originality, chart topping hits, and the lyrical and metaphoric flow and delivery swagger of Lil Wayne. Although I enjoyed the preceding albums in Tha Carter album series, Tha Carter III has to be my most favorite album to date. It’s moody, and different style sets it apart from any other album that I have heard. From its heartfelt songs like “Tie My Hands” featuring Robin Thicke to its most lyrical and metaphoric song, “Dr.Carter” where Lil Wayne boasts about performing surgery on today’s hiphop game to give it the edge it once had.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest Review

                 British Film Reviewer Mark Kermode’s film review on the second installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”, which stars actor Johnny Depp, is anything short of a well written review that is very informative, and criticizes and evaluates every aspect of the movie perfectly. In the review, Kermode descriptively points out all of the faults and flaws in the movie, as well as explain to readers his dislike of the movie also. Kermode stated that the film lacked narrative, its “pout performances, and most of all its “interminable length.” Kermode’s focus is to inform readers who are movie goers his opinion on the film by using persuasive evaluation. Some criteria that is mentioned in the review that Kermode feels is missing is narrative. Kermode states “In the absence of narrative we are left with a string of “spectacular” set pieces to hold our attention.” This means that the movie doesn’t tell the story very well, and the audience is left to put bits and pieces of the story together themselves. Kermode also points the technology used to make the movie as he says, “On the contrary; the digitally enhanced squid-faced villain Davey Jones (he of the locker) is very well rendered, demonstrating the wonders of CGI and motion-capture technology.”

            Kermode mentions previous works from the film’s director, Gore Verbinksi in the article as he implies that he expected this film to have somewhat of the same effects on him as Verbinksi’s later works done. I think that Kermode did a wonderful job at following all of Ballenger’s “Features of the Form” in The Curious Writer. He touched on all the basis of a well written review for a movie, as he gave us his thoughts and opinions in a highly detailed way, while applying the features of the form. Ballenger states that “Relevant comparisons may form the backbone of a review.” In other words Ballenger is saying you must make sure you compare apples to apples and not apple to oranges. In Kermode’s review, he compares the tone of the film to other great films by well know directors, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. He exclaims “The romping tone may aspire to the nostalgic swashbuckler of Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark series (replete with John Williams-lite “ta-ran-ta raaa” score by Hans Zimmer), but it is the rambling blather of Lucas’s Star Wars prequels which is most pungently evoked.”  Here Kemode compares and contrast the pirates’ films with these other two movies that are similar in some ways, but over all a better performance than Verbinksi’s film. Mark Kermode gets a little cocky in his writing by mentioning these two directors and movies, it shows his readers that his review and opinion can be valued, because he is very educated in this category and he knows his stuff.

            Overall I think this was a well written and organized movie review, and it followed Ballenger’s features of the form very precisely. I feel as though Kermode was fair in his writing and also mentioned some positives and not just negatives. He also had a very sarcastic, joking way of writing his review so that it could appeal to his audience. Overall, I enjoyed reading this review and I thought that it was well written and detailed.

The Proposal

The person that I will be writing my profile essay about is my little brother Jimmyri. He is a 13 year old sports phenom, who’s ambition, passion, and determination helps him succeed on and off the field. I believe the subject that I chose is a good one for my profile because my brother is not your average 13 year old. The typical 13 year old tend to have no worries, they do enough just to get by, because they really don’t have any worries, but not my little brother. His dedication, hardwork, and persistence makes him successful on and off the field and the basketball court. The theme or focus that i am considering for my upcoming profile essay is how preparation will allow you to become successful. I already know about my brother away from sports, I want to find out about him even more during sports. For example, what keeps him going, what pushes and motivates him,  how does he make sure to reach and accomplish his goals, and how he excels at everything he does. I think that all of these questions will turn into a worthwhile profile essay and a great one to read.

Examining Your Essay’s Genre

The Profile essay “ The American Male at Age Ten”, written by Susan Orlean, is about a young boy who is in the fourth grade, who’s knowledge is anything short of a typical fourth grade education. Collin Duffy, the wise fourth grader, knows things that a typical fourth grader would not know. The essay employs the features of Ballenger outlines on page 120 of The Curious Writer, because Orlean profile essay has one main focus, the fourthgrade subject, Collin Duffy. Ballenger said “A profile usually provides a detailed look at one person.” Orlean did a very good job as far as staying on topic and describing and giving details of her subject, the fourth grade boy.  Next, Ballenger says “A profile uses narrative as a method of organization.”  In the essay, Orlean narrative about the boy gives the essay added detail because she does it in  such a distinct way. She uses third person point of view to tell the story of her subject. Orlean also has one point in the essay when she gives us description, but it is in the voice of her subject. As Ballenger states, “Profiles go beyond mere description of subjects and reveal information about character much as a short story does through telling details and the subjects own voice.” In one part of the essay Orlean states that Colin says. “The best thing about growing up is adults can go wherever they want.” “Well if you’re grown, and you have a car, and you can go wherever you feel like it and get some candy.” The big idea the profile conveys is how we look at the world when were young, change as we get older. In my opinion, Orlean uses the features Ballenger states on page 120 of The Curious Writer, very well to construct her profile essay.  The information she gives in the profile essay was very detailed. Overall, I liked and enjoyed reading the essay. I like how Orlean told the story, and made me feel like I personally knew Collin. I also feel she touched all the basis of forming a well written profile essay. She had her set subject, and she presented him to her audience very well. The reason why I think she followed Ballenger’s steps is because as I read page 120, all of the features that he listed, I found in her essay.  Only think that I would say is that she could have given us a look into why Collin felt the way he did about something’s, what triggered those thoughts. Other than that, the essay was very good.

“Hey, I just Read This Interesting Article and here’s what i Think”

 

Author Susan Orlean wrote a profile essay on Collin Duffy entitled, “The American Male at Age Ten.” Previously to reading this essay for class, I was not familiar with the writing of Orlean. A journalist for the New Yorker, Susan Orlean has been writing since 1992. To this day, Susan Orlean still writes for newspapers and magazines. Orlean is also an author of numerous books.

The Profile essay “ The American Male at Age Ten”, written by Susan Orlean, is about a young boy who is in the fourth grade, who’s knowledge is anything short of a typical fourth grade education. Collin Duffy, the wise fourth grader, knows things that a typical fourth grader would not know. Stated in the essay, Orlean says the boy is good with numbers. He also can tell you how much money any profession makes.  Orlean mentioned to the boy that her husband was a lawyer, and to her surprise, the boy told Susan that her husband made 400,000 dollars a year. The typical fourth grader probably does not know what their life goals will be when they get older, because there just in the fourth grade, and they have a whole lot of school left ahead of them, but this kid already knew what college he wanted to go to. He was also able to elaborate to Susan on why he wanted to attend that college.

                In the essay, Orlean also examines the more playful, typical fourth grade side of Collin. The boy in the interview mentioned how he and his friends thought girls were so nasty. That is the typical behavior of boys and girls at this young age to think of the opposite sex as being “icky”. Collin also mentioned how he did want to get married when he grew up, but he did not want to have sex, he just wanted to sleep with all of his clothes on. He also enjoys pizza, and playing video games, and Street Fighter 2. Susan Orlean spotted characteristics of Collin to be adult and kid like, and she referred to him as a “Kid-Up”.

                I found this essay to be a very interesting one because I never heard of a story like this about a child so young. I did not learn anything from this essay because it wasn’t to teach anything, but to tell a story about an interesting person. I also found Collin to be very unique and interesting because of the older qualities and characteristics he posses. I would recommend reading this essay to people because it is really interesting. I really think the meaning of this essay was to just tell the story of this unique fourth grader with these unique abilities and habits.  I enjoyed reading this essay.

Personal Essay Sketch – The Preview

It was August of 2005; everything had been going really well in my life leading up to the week that my life would change forever. I was just entering the 7^th grade at my school and I had made the football team, something that really made me happy because it was one of my main goals. As usual around this time, it was hurricane season, something that New Orleanians had really become acquainted with if you know the history of the city. Many hurricanes had come through and cause somewhat of a little damage nothing to major, except for hurricane Betsy in 1965. The city had coined a phrase that locals call staying home during a hurricane even though you had been given fore warning to evacuate, “Ride It Out.” A lot of Hurricanes that did come to the city really wasn’t as bad, so a lot of people may have evacuated just to be safe, or stayed in the city and withheld the storm. But something was a little bit different about the upcoming hurricane they called “Katrina.” No one really paid mind to it because of prior hurricanes were not as bad as you would think. Little did everyone know this hurricane would change everyone’s life as they knew it. Being young, I didn’t really take things as serious as they really were because I was just 12 years old at the time. Having childish conversation with my friends about the hurricanes name I remember us saying, “What type of name is Katrina for a hurricane, that’s so ghetto.” Little did we all know this may be the last time we all would see each other  again. Days leading up to the storm, watching the news was already a daily routine that my mother followed, but now she stayed vigilant as reporters gave information on powerful the storm had become in its earliest stage. I remember my mother calling me into her room telling, “We may have to evacuate, and if so we are going to Houston by my uncle.” Hearing this made me so excited, in my head all I saw was vacation, vacation, VACATION!!!! I was happy to leave because I knew for a fact I would not have to go to school, I would have a mini vacation, and I would be with family members. This was like the best news I could have received that week, but a few days later it would be news that I would regret……..

One More Lesson – Judit Ortiz Cofer

Reading this personal essay by Judith Otiz Cofer was really interesting because it relates to the personal essay that I had planned on writing for my project. The connection that her essay has with mine is that she discusses how life was great for her in Puerto Rico and how everything changed when she moved to the states.  In my personal essay I discussed how life was before Katrina, how it changed during Katrina, and also how life changed when I had to leave New Orleans and relocate to another city. I felt the similar connection with that topic.  As she discussed how life was great back in Puerto Rico, she pointed out specific details that set you into a time, place, atmosphere, and direct feeling. This is one of the main points discussed when writing a personal essay.  The main purpose of this personal essay though is to inform readers on how when she moved to the United States, her and her family was discriminated against.  Judith Ortiz starts off describing the good life she had in Puerto Rico by discussing how she would receive dolls and gifts for Christmas, and how the family would all get together and have a celebration, which made her happy. All of this change when she moved to the United States. People here discriminated against her and her family because of where they were from. She discussed the cultural changes once she moved and how everything was different. Judith retold the story of a horrifying day in class, when a boy who was a foreigner just like her tricked her into doing the wrong thing. He had gotten her in trouble with the teacher, which resulted in the teacher throwing a book at her.  Every since that day, Judith stated “I did not forgive her for throwing that book at me, Yes, I would recognize that book even now. It was not until years later that I had stopped hating that teacher for not understanding that I had been betrayed by a classmate, and by my inability to read her warning on the board.”  After this experience Judith kind of had an even harder time adjusting to her new surroundings.  The description the author used was great. She gave us character description, places, and dialogue.  The use of those tools mad this personal essay a very good one. This essay teaches you that people shouldn’t be discriminated against or looked down upon because of where they come from, and the writer had to experience this as a child.

P1:PW – Approaching Essays using More Than What you THINK you already Know.

Question: What was Lynn’s problem and could you relate to it?

When writing we sometimes look to take the easy way out of things. When we are given a composition to write, we all sit back and think to ourselves, “Hmm, What is something that I could write about, that I already have prior knowledge of, and would be an easy topic?”  We all find ourselves doing this to get by writing things we really don’t want to write, just to take the easy way out. I too find myself asking those same questions. But little do we know, no matter how much we may think we know about a specific topic we choose to write about that we feel is easy, there are always unanswered questions to be asked. In the passage “Writing about Experience” in CW, we are presented with a situation about a student named Lynn. Lynn’s teacher assigned a writing assignment in which Lynn found herself in the same situation I discussed above, trying to find the easiest and most knowledgeable  topic to write about because she feels like she know a lot about it.  When Lynn’s teacher asked her did she think it was a good topic for a personal essay, Lynn said “Yes, because I know a lot about it already.” Lynn’s teacher however presented further questions such as, “What more do you want to understand about the experience, and Does anything about it makes you curious?” I can relate to Lynn’s problem because I often find myself approaching topics the same way she did, based on what I already know and not what I want to know.  I find it easier to write on a topic that I am already familiar with, then one I have to think about.  I think a lot of people approach this method when writing. In actuality if you think about it, no matter how much you may know about a specific topic, there is always more questions to be asked.  So to answer this question, Yes, I can relate to Lynn’s problem because I to use the same approach when writing.

Project 1/Process Work: A look into My Development as a Writer

Project 1/Process Work: Literacy Narrative Collage Essay

            My earliest memory of writing was the first grade. The teacher would give us these prompts that related to what we knew about the most, for example, cartoons, movies, toys, action figures/dolls, TV shows, and characters that we may have liked at the time. Every day we would come into the classroom we would each be given a different topic. Once we have received our topic, we were asked to silently write for about 10 minutes about whatever the given prompt was. The writing had to be at least 5 sentences on the given prompt, but we were always welcomed to write more. This is the earliest memory that I have about writing.

A turning point in my understanding as a writer and the understanding of my writing was in my English IV class when I had to write my term paper. After I conducted all of my research I had to formulate all of my research that I found into general ideas and topics, with sub parts. Even though it was a writing assignment it had to be written in a certain way. Doing a term paper is different from regular writing because it goes deeper than just throwing a few lines down on paper and continuing on. Writing my term paper helped me understand the proper techniques of writing and how to populate a general idea based on inquiry. It also made me understand how to make my writing appeal to any reader. Writing my paper helped me get rid of some the writing methods I previously learned in English classes, as well as learn new methods that I have never heard of before. This was the first time writing that I really had to exercise those tools.

            A typical day in which writing plays a part is when I am at school. It has changed in my lifetime so far because some of the former ideas I had about writing changed and some remained the same. Now I would probably do a step different when writing, then I would have done back in High School, before I learned more ways to enhance my writing abilities. The most successful thing I have written in school was my term paper. It was successful because it determined if I would graduate or not. It also was successful because I received a 100 A on it, and term papers are really a handful.  After I had completed my paper the correct way I felt really good because I know that my writing ability had been enhanced because of the passing grade I had received on my paper. All of these old and new skills combined resulted into a fairly precise paper and it enhanced my writing abilities in ways that I would have never guessed before. I didn’t get bored with writing and I wasn’t afraid to do it. I felt confident about writing and it wasn’t such a pain to me anymore.

Project 1 / Process Work: Literacy Narrative Collage

Project 1/Process Work: Literacy Narrative Collage

1. What is your earliest memory of writing? Tell the story.

My earliest memory of writing was the first grade. The teacher would give us these prompts that related to what we knew about the most, for example, cartoons, movies, toys, action figures/dolls, TV shows, and characters that we may have liked at the time. Every day we would come into the classroom we would each be given a different topic. Once we have received our topic, we were asked to silently write for about 10 minutes about whatever the given prompt was. The writing had to be at least 5 sentences on the given prompt, but we were always welcomed to write more. This is the earliest memory that I have about writing.

2. Tell the story of a teacher, a class, an essay, an exam, or other moment that you consider a turning point in your understanding of yourself as a writer or your understanding of writing.

A turning point in my understanding as a writer and the understanding of my writing was in my English IV class when I had to write my term paper. After I conducted all of my research I had to formulate all of my research into general ideas and topics, with sub parts. Even though it was a writing assignment it had to be written in a certain way. Doing a term paper is different from regular writing because it goes deeper than just throwing a few lines down on paper and continuing on. Writing my term paper help me understand the proper techniques of writing and how to populate a general idea based on inquiry. It also made me understand on how to make my writing appeal to any reader.

3.  Describe a typical day for you in which writing plays a part, and think about how this has changed in your lifetime so far?

A typical day in which writing plays a part is when I am at school. It has changed in my lifetime so far because some of the former ideas I had about writing changed and some remained the same. Now I would probably do a step different when writing, then I would have done back in High School, before I learned more ways to enhance my writing abilities.

4. What is the most successful (or least successful) thing you’ve ever written in or out of school? Tell the story.

The most successful thing I have written in school was my term paper. It was successful because it determined if I would graduate or not. It also was successful because I received a 100 A on it, and term papers are really a handful.  After I had completed my paper the correct way I felt really good because I know that my writing ability had been enhanced because of the passing grade I had received on my paper.